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Want to learn more about our academic degree programs? Take a look at our Master of Divinity, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Ministry programs. Plus, learn about our unique Training & Mentoring program.

This Student Life section is the one-stop shop for students to get connected to activities that will feed your spiritual and social life as well as equip you with resources to jump-start your academic career.

Being a part of our Denver Seminary community is about connection. Whether you are an alumni, donor, or friend of the Seminary, we want to stay in touch and hope you'll take part in our programs and events.

Denver Seminary has a wealth of resources that are available to current students, alumni, and the local community. Here you will find access to the Denver Journal, Engage Magazine, and the various initiatives organized by the Seminary.

At first glance, a book entitled, God and Time: Four Views,
might seem to have little connection with Christian life and practice.
However, further reflection reveals that an understanding of the
philosophical issues surrounding the nature of time and God's
relationship to the temporal creation, is a prerequisite to
understanding the current debate in evangelicalism concerning the
openness of God. Not only will this book shed light on that issue, but
it also serves as a case study for those seeking a clearer
understanding of the relationship between theology and philosophy.

In his helpful introduction, Gregory Ganssle, introduces the
methodology, the key issues and the authors that follow in the book.
His treatments of methodology and key issues are particularly
beneficial in orienting the reader to the material that follows.
Methodologically, he affirms that the viewpoints to follow are all "to
be rooted in Scripture" but are also to be defended philosophically
(11). He correctly notes, however, that the parameters set by Scripture
concerning God's relationship to time allow for a plurality of
positions. "Determining which position is most adequate takes us beyond
the particular data of the Scriptures. We will have to think
philosophically while remaining in the bounds of Scripture" (11).
Ganssle also lays out five key issues to our understanding of God's
relationship to time, the most critical of these being the nature of
time. The debate will rage between those who hold to the A-theory of
time, also know as the process or tensed theory, and the B-theory also
called the static or tenseless theory. For the A-theorist, the future
becomes the present, which becomes the past, but the Now exists in a
way that the past or future does not. For the B-theorist the Now holds
no privileged position over any other time. Since each moment of time
is as real as any other moment, events can be adequately described by
their relation to one another. With methodology explicated and issues
clarified, we can now move to the four views of God and time.

First, we encounter Paul Helm's view of Divine Timeless Eternity
also called eternalism. Helm is a B-theorist who holds that God exists
atemporally or timelessly, that is, outside of time. Helm defends his
position by appealing to the "idea of divine fullness or
self-sufficiency" (29). Helm reasons from the doctrine of divine
fullness, that God possesses "the whole of his life together" (30). If
God were in time, parts of his existence would be over and therefore
God would not possess the whole of his life at once.

Alan G. Padgett views eternity as relative timelessness. Padgett
clears the way for his thesis by first exposing weaknesses in and
rejecting both the eternal and everlasting view of God's existence.
After establishing his negative case, he develops the notion of
relative timelessness. Padget affirms that God created our time and
also transcends it. We live in a "dynamic, changing world" (note the
A-theory of time), and if God is to relate to the world he must "in
some sense be temporal" (105-105). Our created time is measurable and
exists within God's infinite and immeasurable time. God, though
temporal, is timeless relative to our time and as such transcends and
is not limited by time.

Next, William Lane Craig, another A-theorist, defends his hybrid
view entitled "Timelessness and omnitemporality." Craig also attacks
the eternalist position averring that it makes the personhood of God
impossible, it prevents divine relations to the temporal world, and it
restricts God's knowledge in that he cannot know tensed facts. With
these considerations in mind Craig believes that with regard to
creation, God must be temporal. But prior to the creation, (here Craig
means logically not temporally prior) God existed in a "changeless,
undifferentiated state" which Craig soon realizes "looks suspiciously
like a state of timelessness" (159). Thus Craig affirms "two phases of
God's life, one timeless and one temporal, which are not related to
each other as earlier and later" (159).

Finally, Nicholas Wolterstorff advocates a view called "unqualified
divine temporality." Wolterstorff starts in Scripture, claiming that
the Biblical narrative should be interpreted literally "unless one has
good reason not to do so" (29). He finds that God has frequently
interacted with his creation at different times, some earlier, some
later and some now. In his words, God's has a history. Wolterstorff is
an A-theorist who believes that God is temporal.

We have then, four views of time, or do we? Consider Craig's
response to Padgett, "Alan Padgett's view of divine eternity most
closely resembles my own" (115). Wolterstoff also sees Padgett's view
as "a variant on the everlastingness view" (120). Padgett notes that
Craig's essay "contains much I am in agreement with" (165).
Wolterstorff writes that there is "not much" he disagrees with in
Craig's essay (170). Craig states, "I largely agree with everything
Nick Wolterstorff has to say in his essay" (224). Padgett writes, "I am
in fundamental agreement with everything Nicholas Wolterstorff has to
say in his chapter" (219). It is remarkable to find such little
disagreement amongst three philosophers.

Perhaps we really have two views of God and Time rather than the
four presented by the title of the book. On one hand we have Helm, a
B-theorist, who holds that God is atemporal and on the other we have
Padgett, Craig and Wolterstorff, all A-theorists, who all hold that God
is temporal in some manner. Wolterstorff rightly challenges Padgett to
explain what he means when he says, "our time, created time exists
within the pure duration of God's time which is relatively timeless."
How can "one time, our measured time, exist within another time, pure
duration, while yet, presumably, remaining distinct?" (234).
Wolterstorff, delighted that his view sidesteps this issue, must answer
the old question of why God created when he did and not earlier. Craig
answers that question but raises another difficulty. The universe as an
effect exists without a temporally prior cause. God existed only
logically prior to the universe because there literally was no time for
God to exist temporally prior to creation. As indicated by their
responses to each other, these issues seem to be an intramural debate
between A-theorists who are in fundamental agreement with each other.

Perhaps a truly different view that could have been included is one
espoused by Edward Wiernga, who is an A-theorist, yet holds to an
atemporal view of God. (For Wierenga's view see Edward Wierenga, The Nature of God: An Inquiry into Divine Attributes (Ithaca,
NY: Cornell University Press, 1989), chapter 6) Craig briefly rejects
this view is his essay, but also calls it one of "the most
sophisticated attempts to explain how God can be timeless and yet know
tensed facts" (149). Wierenga's view would have encouraged even more
intriguing dialogue.

Yet even without Wierenga's view, the interchange and dialogue that
is aroused between these philosophers is alone worth the price of the
book. The book is written well enough that those without a strong
philosophical or theological background can grasp the material with a
little "spade work" while leaving those with more experience plenty of
material to work through. Anyone interested in philosophy of religion
and philosophical theology will find this book to be an excellent
addition to his or her library.